The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1887-07-23
INDIAN occuLTIsm.
How the Medicine Men Test Their super.
stltious Patients.

How the Medicine Men Test Their super.
stitious Patients.
Although the Indian medicine man
does not practice with white mems
medicine, he evidently can do much
through the powerful influence of the
beliefs which actuate his subjects as
well as himself. The following declara-
ton is certainly remarkable:
~ have known neuralgias, rheuma-
tisms, fevers, dysenteries. diarrhpas,
agues, paralyses, cystitis etc.. to be per-
manently relieved or benefited; tumors
to disappear; convulsions controlled ov
produced; persons to become instan-
taneously stricken with blindness or
palsy; rendered oblivious to pain and
torture; deprived of muscular power
and made rs rigid as marble; to drop
as If dead and pulseless; riso and walk
when an instant before incapable Of
tho slightest exertion; all by the con-
jurations and incantations of medicine
men. Also, 1 am personally conver-
SAINT with the prediction of events in
the far future exactly as they subse-
quently occurred, and with scrupulous
fidelity to details; the movements of per-
sons and individuals to be described in
minuti@ who had never been seen, much
less heard of, and who were hundreds
OF miles away at the time. Moreover,
l have witnessed feats of legerdemain,
jugglery and necromancy, exhibited in
broad daylight, under the full glare Of
the sun, rs well as at night, without
paraphernalia or mystic aids, that
would puzzle the most astute professor
OF civilized magic; some, to be sure,
susceptible of explanation under physi-
cal and psychical laws, and others not
so readily disposed of, save as optical
and aural delusions and tricks of the
Imagination. 1a
Noise and odor are the means by
which the medicine man operates upon
the demons which affiict the sick man.
The patient is shut up in close and
sitting atmosphere and submitted to
combinations of sounds and smells
calculated to drive the most obstrep-
erous of foul devils to the remote con-
fines of space--odors SO very internal
and nauseous that even dogs are made
i'll thereby"
When the medicine man is called he
proceeds to business at once. The
diagnosis does not bother him. for all
diseases have q similar origin, and, by
means of the amulets in his medicine
bag, he can Immediately find out which
is the special foul fiend he has to deal
with, as we'll as discern the proper
treatment. Only one opinion is possi-
BILE; the number and malignancy of the
demons at work in given case is the
only thing to be determined.
lfpossible, the incarnation is put off
until night. because the spi'its are more
easily brought under discipline in the
darkness. The proceedings usually be-
gin with a monotonous chant, that rises
and falls with abrupt infections. In
this the demons are alternately coaxed,
humored or threatened, and in every
way abjured to leave their present
habitation and resume their proper
forms. In the meantime the assistants
keep up n running accompaniment with
drums and rattles made from gourds
and parchment. Gradually the songs
become louder and more violent,
the drums and rattles increase
their din, higher and higher, shrillcr
and still more shrill becomes the voice
of the conjurer, until it becomes a fran
tic, piercing shrek, and the din is
pandemonium, altogether fiendish. GRAZ
ing and excruciating beyond compre-
hension. Finally, utterly exhausted,
the chief performer, black in the face
and streaming persriration from every
pore, pauses and-eats. All present
fall to and fill themselves to repletion.
This performance is repeated again and
again, while the smoke and fumes OF
burning gunpowder, fish-cntrails, bears
hair, parchment, fur and other odOrous
substances too disgusting to mention
fill the lodge to suffocation with smells
that can fairly be felt. During the in
teryal, the patient is blown upon with
the breath, the painful parts sucked
with the mouth, or gashed with knives
and flints, so that an imitation of we
cupplng can be practiccd by means Of
a bison horn from which the air has
been exhausted by suction. To COM
plete the expulsion of the demon, and
to keep him away, the incarnation ends
with discharge of firearms through |
the lodges and all around, and this is !
kept up for hours after the |
medicine man has taken his departure.
81. Louis Globe Democrat.